The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1887-12-14
HENRY /. BIOSSAT, Business Manager.
winging his way, speck across the


blue.
The shaft is down three feet, and /
now the miner fills his pan with
gravel from the bottom of the pit and
washes it in the stream. Yes, there /
is gold in the drift, for on the bottom
of the pan glisten three colors. They
are mere specks. it is true, but they
are the genuine article. and no mis-
take. This small find encourages the
toiler to continue his search, for he
knows that the heavier particles of
gold, no matter what may have been
their position in the drift when it was
first deposited, will not rest easy until
they have reached the rock-bed and
found crevice for their grave. And
so he sinks the shaft to the bedrock,
twelve feet or more. He drifts east
along the rock. he drifts west, north
and south, and finds the precious stuff
everywhere, but not in sufficient
quantities to pay.
Again he is up on that cliff How
did he manage to scale those perpen-
| dicular walls which form its sides2 1t
seems as though nothing but a bird
could find foothold, and yet there he
is dancing wildly around something
that glitters in the sunlight like an
enormous ball of silver. That pile
is ore, rich in silver and lead He
has just dug it out of the ground. Is
it any wonder, then, that he is in an
ecstacy of delight, for it seems as
though he had struck it rich
at last. A little assistance from
capital is all he requires now to be-
come millionaire. He sits down for
a moment and stares towards the East
with yearning look in his soft gray
eyes. He is thinking, perhaps, of the
home of his childhood, and how he has
met with success at last. He leaps
into the pit again and digs away for
dear life. But the walls of the lode
have suddenly come together 1t was
merely pocket of ore, and will never
make him rich or any body else; and
fortune, who seemed so near to hun a
moment ago, is as far away as ever.
The punching OUT of that lode
only disheartens our prospector for q
moment or so, for there he is now
driving tunnel at the foot of that
granite boss There is a fine lot OF
ore lying at the mouth Of the opening
1t is a sugary. comfy, drusy quartz.
and is sprinkled here and there with
gold. Carefully examine the granite
walls of the lode and see how clean
they are. The most skillful workman
could not have made them so smooth
or polished them half so we'll. OBJ
serve those shining punches of crystals
there in the heading, sure sign that
the vein is live one. 1t is six feet
between walls, and the lead matter
averages forty dollars per ton. 1t is
surely a rich ledge and the miner
fondest hope may yet be realized.
But who are those two men who have
Just come over the crest of the hill
above the tunnel? One of them has {
wooden box under his arm. 1t has nc
cover, and there is a paper containing
some writing fastened on the inner
side of its bottom. They are avillain
: ous-looking pair, these two, and ar
there for no good purpose. See how
, they crawl along, almost on thei
stomachs. They conduct themselve
as though some one might see then
and make target of their worthless
: carcasses. But nobody molests them
| They have come to halt, set the DO:
; down on it's end and piled loose rock
around it to keep it in place, and thel
sneak off the way they came, like
Q couple of cowardly coyotes, whic
Il they closely resemble.
e These two worthless belong to tina
disreputable class known here in tn
West as 'claim jumpers. They hav
: been sent out by some covetous specu
: lator, who wants the earth, and VIII
IS sticks at nothing to get it, or at leas
3 a large slice of it. He has learned i
S some way of this promising pros
pect. and has engaged thos
9 wretches to post notice thereo
a claiming the property. There will b
a fierce dispute over it now. The mai
u ter will be brought into the courts an
y will probably be settled some time i
the next decade. 1t will be conflic
e of the friendless and penniless agains
the rich and influential. Might. an
: not right. generally wins in such cases
not through any fault of those VIII
1t administer the law, but because of til
II poverty of the rightful owner and til
o law itself.
l. Such is the real life of a gold hunte
al except in few cases. After years
TO exhausting toll, and just when his e
81 forts are about to be crowned wit
lie success, others step in and steal tn
lie fruits of his labors, or by trickery an
is fraud reap the harvest which he hi
III sown. Those who so wrong him al
VS. highly honored and respected in tt
e. communities where they reside, viii
m he, who first planted the standard
civilization in the Western wilds, ar
b, won a vast empire from the wilde
he ness. steals into an unknown grave.
d. Helena (Mon.) Cor NJ y World.
th JOHN" said his wife, don't "
ID spend more than you want for lunch'
a down town? l can't understand no